Topping West Seattle Crime Watch this morning – Christian‘s Outback was stolen overnight in North Admiral, and he hopes you’ll keep an eye out for it:

It is a 1996 Green Subaru Legacy Outback, License # AGF1432. I attached a photo to help with the description. Its a very distinctive outback because of the roof rack, lights, and spare tire. Also it is missing the front license plate, its in the front window instead of on the front bumper. Last seen in front of my house last night. Noticed it was gone at 7:30 this morning.

Finally, from Anita, word of a bizarre case of vandalism in the 3200 block of Belvidere:

Not even sure where you file this one. On Saturday morning, my husband came out of our house to find our car, which was parked in our driveway, covered in flour and Splenda. There was an open bag of flour and lots of little bags of Splenda strewn about our driveway. The car was a mess. We don’t have any teenagers or any other reason to think we would be targeted. We’re a plain old middle aged couple with one little kid. Wondering if anyone else has had this happen.

19 Comments

Wow, I can’t believe someone stood around ripping open little bags of Splenda.

In the 80s (when I was growing up), before sanitary napkins started arriving in individually wrapped little bags, some manufacturers used to include a little bundle of flower-printed plastic bags to use for napkin disposal. I ended up with a heap of these things, and one summer night my friend and I used them to “wrap” the house of a boy down the street. I think the Splenda/flour dump might be weirder than that, though.

Back in the late ’80s, I used to not lock my Monte Carlo when in my friends driveway. One evening, I got in the car and suddenly thought it was on fire because of wafts of “smoke” rising up. Turns out someone had spread talcum powder all over the interior of my car. I don’t think it ever came our of the AC system. Completely random act.

Christian – So sorry to hear your Subaru was stolen! My Legacy was stolen last March but found a month later in the Central District, containing real estate listing posters and strange items that made me conclude the thieves were using it as stolen property transport. Yours will likely turn up. Hope you have comprehensive insurance… Even used 10+ year old Subarus retain their value in this area so you should be able to recover some $$$ if the car doesn’t turn up within 21 days (that was State Farm’s window, anyway.)

On a side-note, does anyone know if 1990s Subarus are known to have a small number of possible key configurations? The windows on my Legacy were all intact and there were no signs of how they got in (unless I left it unlocked, which I doubt), so I could only assume the thief happened to have the same key configuration.

My 2001 Sub Outback Sport was stolen from my driveway last August and recently recovered (as one among over 100) in a big King Co. sting. The theft of your Sub reminds me that Subarus continue to be a theft-target. So frustrating.
Very sorry this happened to you.

@highlandpark I’m very happy to hear yours was found! I imagine that was a huge relief to get it back. I have been talking with my insurance company and lets just say i really hope it turns up… Thank you for your positive words! About your question regarding the keys, the older subies, 80s 90s, have a problem where the key wears down the lock and ignition to chances are that your keys could open and start another older subie… so the people who took yours (and mine) probably had a bunch of Subaru keys and just tried them until they found one that opened the doors and would start it. I recommend a steering wheel lock! I wish i would have known all this about the keys before. I would have taken better steps to making my car more theft proof.

@norsk girl I’m happy yours was recovered as well! this definitely gives me hope that mine will turn up knowing more people have found theirs.

@Stu Thank you. It is a real bummer.

@Michelle Simpson That is awful! I very much hope that your Subie is returned to you. I know i will keep an eye out for it.